Post-ch9: Alicia tells Ash that she’s checking in on him to make sure there’s no funny business afoot. She mentions that Ash’s aunt and uncle have left his siblings in Olva to fend for themselves. Laraya seems to have told Val that she saw Ash working together with Bran. Alicia tells Ash she warned his sister not to go to Tiomare and that Val has probably given up hope at this point. “On the bright side”, Alicia gets to accompany Ash and learn more about the spooky dark magic. Ash mutters “Heheh… You’ve always understood me perfectly, Uncle” when Alicia leaves him to make sure he did his job in wiping out the rebels.

Even though I tried not to go crazy on story screenshots this time, it seems like I still did and as a result the cutscenes play out like a weird fever dream. I’ll get better about being brief, I promise.

Val doesn’t actually say “＊sniff＊” twice; that was an error I made while uploading the screenshots as the Discourse post preview thingy began lagging to the point that it couldn’t keep up with what I was doing. I’m leaving it in because it’s hilarious.
Also, it’s come to my attention that I’ve been playing a non-latest version of the game. This is because the version number in the SF thread is 1.4 and my rom was called 1.4, so I assumed I had the newest version. I’ve since obtained the newest version so this won’t happen again.

It’s time for chapter 10! Admittedly I didn’t have much time to play, so there’ll be very few screenshots and text. Luckily, the chapter was a short Defeat All chapter with short dialogue.

Chapter 10

We start off the only way Requiem knows how:

Alicia, that boss from whatever chapter, now has a pet Ash. Ash is now a bad guy, we’re the bad guys, and we’re going to do bad guy things. I want to like Ash as a character, but his dialogue reads as either 4D chess or elementary school checkers. Here are some snippets:

But what if he’s lying now?!?!?!

Kidding aside, lying to save his family or country benefits him, too, so this is pretty bad.

Build an army, trust no one (especially the guy who is literally the enemy)

The new gang leaves to go help fight some goons. Alicia’s squad is supposed to cut off any retreat, but she just kinda’ ignores her orders and does her own thing. On the way there, we get

There’s a bunch of talk about being nice to Ash so he gives up his secrets, and dude-whose-name-I-forget thinks that keeping Ash alive is dumb. He storms off, calling Ash an ant.

No ant has ever been this edgy.

The chapter begins.

There are things I like and dislike about this map, but first:

Droppable items:
1 | Door Key
2 | Trained Pike
3 | Militant Arc

We have a new goon, Alicia.

Not to mention the two goons in the locked room:

I forgot to grab their descriptions, but they’re brothers from some Eastern tribe. From now on, they’re one entity: Skyhawk.

Here’s the enemy.

Some of these pictures might seem out of order. I had to reset a few times because breaking the wall and getting to do things in time is hard. The first enemy you face is an axe unit and you’ve got mostly lances.

On turn 2(?) things start picking up.

It’s a bad one. Apparently the left half of Skyhawk has a slave wife. They expect her to have run away, but she has a different plan.

Not pictured: the wife escaping from these goons.

She manages to find her way to here, somehow…

Gotta’ love sword NPCs spawning with lance units around.

She tries to talk to Ash, even if the cell to her m(a|e)n is open. This is pretty bad because the turn after she shows up, three soldiers and an archer spawn where she did.

Also, across the map…

His description is BS. He goes and loots the chests before exiting toward you.

Sacred Blaze?!?!?!

She talks in choppy sentences. As soon as she reaches Ash, we get reinforcements.

When Nala reaches Skyhawk, everyone starts speaking with quotes around their text. I’m told this means that they’re speaking in another language, but this seems pretty bad.

They both join.

We move forward slowly and recruit the thief. First, Ash has a talk with him. Ash basically lets the dude go and gives him advice on how to escape. Thief gives Ash a tome.

Then, Alicia recruits him by telling him pretty much the same thing, spilling all of his goods, handing them back to him, and then ensuring his safety if he joins.

He gets caught twice by a bunch of goons. Great description.

More reinforcements appear, they die in waves, yadda yadda.

We slaughter the remaining dudes pretty easily now that we have sword and axe units.

Not pictured: Ash running away.

Ash manages to narrowly avoid running into bad guy #2, is found by Alicia, and has a weird sequence.

Ash explains that he’s basically dead no matter what, so Alicia hugtackles(?) him and asks for him to spill the beans. I picture the scene as Wan and Ash3wl.

Meanwhile bad guy #2 is watching all of this and tells Alicia he’s going to tell his dad or something.

Ash then talks to Skyhawk and wife, who tell Ash that they’re leaving and would like him to have some gold.

Yeah, I low-key expected them to go for Ash, but I got so caught up in what I was doing that I forgot how it works.

Lok’tar O’gar

I’m sorry for what I am going to do.

A lot happens in the end.

Ash succs a lot, and gets doubled by a random merc, but lives. As do Gemma and Alicia.

Nala checks up on this woman, and then…

Question, does this affect any encounters with her at all? Just wondering.

A lot happens, including Edward fucking up a level.

FUCK

One reload later, I do a lot of things I can’t keep track on, to get Edward the Str point he deserves.

Talk Time: Edward and Alicia

I wonder who leads said group.
Hmmm…

So, he No U’d Alicia. Hmm…

Oh, and after that, Drake got the ban hammer up his head.

I… think I should save this up for a certain archer. Then, again, I think I know who might need this. I’m just not using it right now.

Hawke kills the Crusher close-up, and Clare gets a good level.

Not much to say here.

For this spot, however, I’ll have to take a lot of care. For one, the boss moves, and I found out by the time I decided to have Drake get his head himself. Second, he’s near a village that I have to visit. Third, I have a bad feeling with the slowness of this map.

WIth that on mind, I place Gemma over here.

Murder happens in places, and Skye gets his good levels.

Not shown: Gemma dodging an archer.

YES.
WE NEED YOU.

but first let me clear this one

Clare breaks a staff, and Hawke gets a level

Marco and Linda team up to murder a Knight.

Skye kills a Soldier.

A Knight lows it blow for Linda, but she lives. The same can’t be said about the archer, though, and
yet Clare lives.

Time to visit this village…

Little girl blinks in and out of existence. Holy shit.

Totally did not rig any of those levels

This fellow handed over a Double Spear. Good.

I trade one javelin for a Salve.

Edward lives everything, but oof…

Hmm…

12 seconds later

Blame me for forgetting to screenshot what happened in this moment

Something about Lord Kenrick being in the city.
Also, armory had only militant weapons, so I don’t think that’s important, right?

A lot of dodging and killing happens. Nala gets speed and skill, but no Str. :eliwoood:

Hawke and Gemma rid the world from these plagues. Now let’s check those Elitegard-

I have checked their stats beforehand, and oh boy, do they love to turn the hit rates against you.

Excuse me I am out

Sums up our objective. She leads us to The Gratia Outlands. It’s a region in the north-east of Egardia. I think.

Gameplay-wise, this chapter can be a massive pain if you get killed mid-chapter by a boss that gives no hints of advancing if you enter his range, and the elites are too much for me. Seriously, if you’re going to give hints of super reinforcements coming or try to hurry up, you’d at the least need to give a warning about it.

Also, yes, I have noticed it, the enemies were kinda underleveled. Which I’d find odd right away.

I’ve been dreading the day when it would be my turn again, and here we are.

Chapter 12

I was trying to think of a clever joke for the chapter title but all I had were suicide jokes so let’s just not.
I’m finding it harder and harder to follow the plot.
The quicker we wrap this up the better.
Hi Marcus

And here’s our map.
…
Where’s the boss?

Time to make this peg large.
Not!Morhps. Okay.
Rip play time.
I’m just going to get this out of the way for reasons that will become apparent quickly.
Jace and Vincent, more bodies to throw at things.
FuckFuckFUCKFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK
If only that were true.
Gee thanks Alicia
More HP
Oh yeah Keiran and whatshername the cleric showed up too.
Oh boy.
Vincent goes on to say something along the lines of “I don’t trust anything you say if a woman told you it.”
Hey that’s a good level up
Hey that’s not
See they’re human so they’re totally not morphs!
And with that my suffering ends, for now.

thoughts

Boy this chapter was boring filler garbage. There wasn’t a boss or reinforcements, just run through the map, kill things, try not to die. All it did was establish these Hollow enemies, which could’ve been done in a cutscene instead of wasting the player’s time with this filler. It wasn’t particularly offensive, but it certainly wasn’t that good either. It just exists, which isn’t a good thing.

So I haven’t been keeping up with the plot like at all but apparently we smash cut to the Val mode chumps for whatever’s been happening to them. They get a tip from…
this suspicious looking woman (with a not bad portrait) to go to Egardia to find Ash because apparently they’re looking for him. Alright.
The aforementioned woman also blatantly hits on Val and she doesn’t know how to respond. Alrighty then.

EVERYONE IS DEEEEEEEEAD

We also get an overleveled mage and a convoy. Horray!

This obviously not a bad guy teleported in and broke the text palette.

blah blah join me or die

blah blah i know the truth

im with ash on this one.

blah blah if you won’t join me i’ll kill you

LOL GET STOMPED.
(he lived)

RUN ALL YOU WANT YOU CANT ESCAPE FATE

i’m proud of you requiem. you actually acknowledged the battle stats not being the same as the resulting damage. i respect that.

boy this is some map.

Laylea’s okay. Low mag though.

How the fuck did you guys get a convoy this full.
(I gave Alicia the speedwings. I hope she doesn’t die in the story or something later.)
ALSO: Note the 8 FUCKING CHESTS on this map. This will be very important later.

The beginning part of this map is pretty simple. Just bait and switch the not-very threatening enemies. They’re fairly bulky though honestly.

First 3 chests: Luna, Hammerne, Angelic Robe

You wouldn’t have thought a 45 hit Eclipse would be at all threatening, and it isn’t really, but it is very obnoxious and is getting weirdly good odds on my guys.

We get a pegasus knight. She’s roughly equivalent to the one we already have, her daughter.
She has talks with all 3 of her daughters, and I took screenshots of them, but they’re incredibly unenlightening and not very interesting. Except that all 3 of them treat her coldly for reasons that probably were explained earlier but I sure don’t know them.

Ash and Alicia got a support.

i’m good at this game.
(he wouldn’t have had to dodge that 65 if he dodged a 35 earlier in the phase…)
(I also never healed his wounds, he stayed at 1 HP the entire rest of the chapter.)

what
what
what

(i just noticed his class is fucking “soul reaper” ahahahah)

looks like it’s time to speed ourselves up.

chests 4 and 5, a magic bow and a delphi shield. I like those.

that’s gonna be a yikes from me dawg

chests 6,7,8
i only got the whip and the ring whoops

Let’s blow this popsicle stand

ok

Thoughts

This chapter was actually kinda fun. It was a little too long and most of the enemies were attack in range, but the surprisingly tight deadline made it something that was actually fairly enjoyable, because you can’t just sit around baiting things. The first like 10 turns are boring as sin because I was doing just that. Having something actually pushing you along makes requiem’s typical design not the worst ever. We also got some cool loot from a frankly unnecessary number of chests. I also did it on my first try so I didn’t get sick of it from having to do it over and over.

Well uhh… I didn’t exactly do anything this map lol. Only tense part was when Not!Gharnef appeared, but once you realize he literally does not have the chance to do anything, there is nothing to be afraid of, and once your realize that, the map becomes really boring.

“A baguette with olive oil is a sandwich”
Alicia tells Drake that she’s decided to get the hell out of Dodge now that Ash is okay and re-united with his siblings.

“And I’m sure as hell not going to stay here with everyone looking at me like I’m some kind of criminal or something.”
She knows about Andrei, doesn’t she?

＊Huff＊

“want to. It’s not like I helped Ash for your sake, or even his.”
accept the lady’s thanks, Alicia

ｪｪｪｴｴｴェェェエエエエエエエエエエエエエエエエエッ—?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

“If it weren’t for you, I don’t think I ever would have seen him again.”

“No need to bow your head to me, though. I… really have to get going now, you know?”

“But I can tell you care about my brother. You want to keep helping him, don’t you? Don’t let me, or anyone else, stand in the way of that.”

She’s staying after all!

Val encourages Drake to talk it out with Andrei

It’s been a little bit since our encounter with the poet

“He didn’t tell me about it, but it was all in order to get Egardia off our backs.”

“for anything on Legato, Matthias, or this dark magic, but there’s been nothing as of yet.”

Ash wants to go after Shel because the latter is such a chaotic variable in that he can appear at any moment and we don’t know what his plans are. Val argues that it’s futile right now because Shel could just warp away from them whenever he wanted and probably would end up killing them all. Andrei suggests going after Legato.

“Let’s start with him. We know where he is, and I bet you he knows a lot about everything going on.”

“hear back from Uncle Rayden or Aunt Josie. We don’t have enough manpower, even if we join up with the militia, at this stage.”
Best units in the game >Andrei, even when they’re not present. Val hints at some Fire Emblem-esque “there are generic soldiers in your army being managed by the main characters; you just don’t see them during gameplay” logistics.

“I’m not saying Legato’s a good guy, but you’re not suggesting he’s in league with the guy that attacked us, are you?”

“Aunt Josie always says it.”
Even Andrei knows!
Alicia mentions how Legato has served Bran for over a decade and is unlikely to be plotting anything behind his lord’s back.

basically our perception of the story
Ash suggest that Legato might be playing a long con since the beginning. Alicia questions how he could think this. Ash reminds her that Legato and Matthias (Bran’s son) are associated in some way because they collaborated on attempting to kill Alicia and re-capture Ash. Alicia concedes that anyone on good terms with Matthias can get Bran to do what they want through his son.

Alicia commits to helping the gang take back Olva at step 1 of Operation: Get to Matthias and Legato

We get the “I guess Layla’s traveling with us because it’s too dangerous to travel alone” song and dance out of the way here

“I don’t know how they work, exactly, but they might have some use in the future.”

“right? If there were a way to seal his power, perhaps he could be beaten, or something, right?”
ＡＬＩＣＩＡ ｇｏｔ ＭＳＥＡＬ！
ＡＬＩＣＩＡ ｐｕｔ ＭＳＥＡＬ ｉｎ
ｔｈｅ ＫＥＹＩＴＥＭＳ ｐｏｃｋｅｔ．

opportunities for the up-and-coming Olvan tourism industry, anyone???

:suicide: :thinkingtokms:

A few of our Val Mode units have been bugged… Did I say bugged? I meant buffed

I wish I could use Jace, but I’m swapping him for Andrei because the latter will be a forced deployment in one or two lategame chapters iirc

Thanks, Marcus

If you’re going to be changing all the items’ capitalization to FE8 style…

This map isn’t the map that made Distant Travels as grating for me as Winds Across the Plains, but it’s close enough

cmon baby dont fear the reaperAlso if you’re famed doesn’t that make you a bad assassin

kill me

Lightning replacement actually has a pretty cool sprite, but it’s still not great

As usual, no one can fight on the first turn…

… with one glorious exception
(I gave him a killer lance)

speed/10

Give thanks for dumb luck!

Don’t give thanks that it’s turn 3 and most of our dudes still can’t do shit!

Not only is Barrier good exp fodder for Clare, it’s also going to augment Keiran’s abysmal resistance stat
… I mean, there’s a single-digit number of enemy magic users here, but it’s the thought that counts, hey?

Axe in map sprite… actual unit has a lance. Why couldn’t it have been the lance/sword cav class instead?

ｗｅｌｃｏｍｅ ｔｏ ｈｅｌｌ

“How pathetic. … Most of our men are injured, so we can’t break through quickly. Forgive me, Lady Laraya… but please stay safe.”Remember me?

ＷＥＬＣＯＭＥＴＯＨＥＬＬpopulation: me

Ordanze is an engine of destruction. Good stats that promote to +15 crit =use this man

also, whenever I see “Secret Salve” my mind always reads it in a Sean Connery accent

The Tiomare mooks are pretty competent. Decent stats with Trained equipment and a vulnerary each.

I’ll take “battle palettes that look better than the portrait” for $200, Alex.

mh

no healer in range because of eternal rain, but i have a
ＬＩＣＥＮＳＥ
ＴＯ
ＨＥＡＬ

R I V E R S T R A T S ?

“And what was that voice?”

THEN ALL OF THESE FUCKERS FLY IN FUCK YOU GIVE ME RYDELL BACK

Light-user resistance laughs at the magic triangle, as usual

This fucker refuses to heal himself

THANK THE HEAVENS!
This is why people hate weather in Fire Emblem: no one knows how to use it. That was at least five straight turns of rain on a HUGEANTIC map where it would take several turns to get anywhere without rain, and that period of rain in particular probably forced several past players to watch Ordanze die as they hopelessly struggled towards him with their 2-mov units

fuk u

Where the two paths seemed so far apart with the rain, now a flier can easily close the distance between

you get a GAME OVER FOR THE FUCKING FUCKER WHO REFUSES TO FUCKING USE THE FUCKING ELIXIR HE HAS IN HIS FUCKING INVENTORY

sorry but I’m vetoing this

Wow! I can’t believe all of those axe guys missed the myrmidon! It definitely didn’t only happen after I force-fed the RNG for every single one of their attacks!

Thank goodness. I was starting to dread that you needed Val to speak with him

“My sister and I are here to help you out.”
“… I see.”
"You have to understand. I would never have just stood by and let the things in Tiomare happen if I had any other choice.
“Now come. We must hurry.”

I’m not gonna knock down the snag there at all; Katarina and Keiran are plenty enough to deal with these winged stooges

Good thing I abruptly decided not to bring Isaac up there several turns back

A crit isn’t enough to take this guy out…

… but this is

Using nothing but a chariot, I distract and deceive my enemies. Call me Kongming

… I just noticed that these tiles in particular are Cliff (to be used as the boundary or a lake or sea) tiles, not River tiles

“wow take a look at this sha-manlet over here”

Speed and defense!

“peace guys im out”

TRUTH

“If they could take her down…”
NO!

Ordanze and the others decide that they need to look for Laraya while they have time
(Poor Val. That’s at least the third time I caught her mid-blink during this episode alone. She’s just not good around cameras!)

“… That man that warped away during the fighting.”

"They called him “the Reaper”.

#CMON BABY DONT FEAR THE REAPER CMON BABY

“But his reputation as an assassin more than accounts for how dangerous he is. Megelar might have been feared for its mighty warriors, but that man… He was the one who made even trying to bring down the noble family members no more than a fool’s errand.”

“disappeared off the face of the earth because of that guy. … Even some people I know have been taken out by him. … He’s a menace.”

“Things are just getting worse.”

Ash surmises that Rydell was being controlled by the owner of the voice that was commanding him.

“No, don’t think like that…”

I forgot about how many words this chapter spent weirdly hyping up Rydell. At first, we learn that he assassinates literally everyone from all walks of life including Edward’s friends, then we learn that he’s under mind control. And the next time we see him…

Screenshots will be mixed with text dumps. I reset a bunch of times, so gameplay isn’t consistent.

Chapter map

We begin with Ordanze, Val, and Andrei in the southern forested area.

Text

[Enter Ordanze]

Ordanze: Tch… First rain, now fog.

[Enter Andrei]

Andrei: They went down about here?

Ordanze: I’m sure of it.

Andrei: Then let’s go an-

[Enter Val]

Val: Hold on, Andrei. There’s no sense in running out blindly into the fog. If there are enemies about, then they could be anywhere.

Ordanze: Lady Laraya… Please, be safe.

The camera pans north to the cave, where Laraya and Josie are.

Josie is somehow doubled by the boss (who is riding a ballista on the cliffs to the east). She eats a shot.

Text

[Enter Laraya]

Laraya: Josephine!

[Enter Josie]

Josie: Nng…

Laraya: Are you alright?

Josie: I’ll be fine. That archer’s got a good eye, even in this fog. No matter how high or low I fly, they keep targeting me.

Laraya: …We were lucky enough to drive off that first ambush party when we did. But this second one might be too much. We need to find Ordanze and the others.

Josie: Laraya, fall back further into the caves with your soldiers. I’ll hold them off here and see what I can do.

Laraya: Josephine, please… I can’t let you do that. You’re injured. And your dragon is looking even worse.

Josie: T-Trust me, I’m fine. I’ve dealt with worse.

Laraya: I believe you when you say that, but I won’t have you die here for me. How could I explain that to Lady Valentine and the others?

Josie: …Alright, I understand. But what are you going to do?

Laraya: I’ll distract these foes. Go and find Ordanze.

Josie: You’re going to fight?

Laraya: It’s time I took up the oath of the sword once again. Please, Josephine, leave it to me.

Josie: Hmph, if I do find him, he’s not going to be to happy about this… But I’ll do as you wish. Be careful, Laraya. I’ll try to return as quickly as possible.

[Exit Josie]

Laraya: I just hope Ordanze is safe. Sword, guide me…

Josie flies south, killing a wyvern goon in the process.

Text

[Enter Josie]

Josie: …I won’t let you get anywhere near Laraya. If you want to fight, then I’m right here.

Text

[Enter Josie]

Josie: These soldiers are tougher than I thought… I’m sorry, Karan…[…][A] I know that you’re hurt, but I just need you for a little bit longer.

[From offscreen]

That sounded like a dragon! Come on Val, we have to do something! Stop shouting. You’re going to give us away![.][A]

Josie: Those voices…

She finds the group.

Text

[Enter Josie]

Josie: Andrei, Valentine, is that you?

[Enter Andrei]

Andrei: Master?

[Enter Val]

Val: What’s happened?

Josie: They’ve got ballistae set up on the cliff edges. Karan and I have been taking a beating everytime we try to get up into the air.

[Enter Ordanze]

Ordanze: Where’s Lady Laraya?!

Josie: Ordanze? Good, you’re still alive.

Ordanze: I asked you a question!

Josie: We managed to fight our way forward on the ground to some caves on the other side of the lake. She said that she’d hold them off while I came to find you, Ordanze. I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t do anymore to help up there.

Ordanze: She’s fighting?

Josie: We can trust in her, right?

Ordanze: Yes… we can. But we should still hurry!

[Exit Ordanze]

Josie: And you two… it’s good to see you again.

Andrei: It’s not just us. Ash is here, too.

Josie: Really? He’s back with us? …What a relief.

Val: You don’t look so good. Are you going to be alright, Aunt Josie? Mm… I think it’ll be up to you to get rid of the ballistae, but I’ll do what I can to help. Please, don’t push yourself too hard.

Cut to prep screen.

Figured I’d show you this thing:

Notice anything wrong here?

Anyway, there’s a few things going on here that need to be talked about.

First, it’s a fog map. Yay.

Second, there are units within the fog that drop things, like this shaman with a Void tome.

Third: There are archers and ballistae hidden in the fog.

And, lastly:

The person we have to defend is alone on the other side of the map. This is horrible. Absolutely tedious game design. Many of the units that appear to fight her are 1-2 with strong weapons and magic.

That Holy Edge is 1-2, so she can deal with ranged units if you want to use the sword. The first enemy that attacks her also drops a Salve, so she has a bit of healing.

It’s perfectly possible, though, for her to die after a turn or two. Her survival is pretty luck-based.

Just before the chapter begins, we have her talking to her troops hiding in the cave:

Text

[Enter Laraya]

[Enter Soldier]

Soldier: Milady, don’t you think you should remain inside? There are people inside who are willing to fight.

Laraya: Then I have confidence that they’ll be able to protect the injured if they get by me.

Soldier: M-Milady…

Laraya: I don’t want any of you to move from this position. It’s far too dangerous. Am I clear?

Soldier: Y-Yes, milady!

[Exit Soldier]

Laraya: To my left… Across the bridge. Over the lake, as well. This will be difficult.

Josie also has something to say:

Text

[Enter Josie]

Josie: If I know Laraya like I think I do, then she’s more than capable of holding off a fair number of those soldiers. But even her senses aren’t good enough to see through all this fog. And I doubt I drew all our enemies this way. …Maybe I should go back.

The objective is to defeat all enemies, but you also are required to keep Laraya alive. When first playing this, I also expected that you had to defend the cave, but you don’t. In fact, the cave tile is counted as plains, so you’re shooting yourself in the foot by standing there.

I reset a few times before figuring out that I should park her on a forest.

Now, you’d think you probably want your flying units to rush across the lake to help Laraya, but:

Surprise! There’s an archer waiting for you, and he has a dirty trick up his sleeve. That bow, which is effective against knights for some reason, uses a different effectiveness pointer than the normal flying effectiveness. This means it cuts straight through the negate flying effectiveness item. Sucks to suck.

Here Gemma has the item that’s supposed to negate the effectiveness.

Have some resets. Eventually I just start using savestates and start pushing through the islands.

Oh yeah, here’s Ash trying to be a magekiller. Both his prf magekilling tome and the tome that negates resistance really don’t help.

Man, Isaac, you’re the real magekiller!

…Oh.

Here’s where we’re at on turn 5. Fun surprises are ahead.

Like ballistae.

Or the mass of wyvern reinforcements that spawn on turn 7, right on that mountain to the south.

And there’s no way to get Andrei, who was dealing with units from the right, out of the way.

Another reset. Eventually I find a way to keep him from dying.

The boss also leaves after some text:

Text

[Enter Danielle]

Danielle: …They’re closing in. Is that not enough?

[Spooky voice]

SV: …You’ve disappointed me.

Danielle: … …

SV: Oh well… Yes, return for now.

Some clever tanking and mopping up later, and the only remaining enemies are hiding up north.

We get up there to deal with them.

Notice anything off here?

Anyway, we clear out the goons, and I notice some goons are coming up behind.

Josie: I feel a lot better, knowing that I didn’t leave you to die. And we’re in good company now, so I can get patched up in no time.

[Enter Andrei]

[Enter Val]

Val: It’s good to see you again, Lady Laraya.

Laraya: Same to you, Lady Valentine, Lord Andrei.

Val: I’m grateful that you came to help us, but what exactly prompted you to do that now?

Laraya: Well, a couple of weeks back, Tiomare was assaulted by soldiers- not unlike the ones we’ve encountered today. If it weren’t for your Aunt’s timely arrival, we may not have made it away as safely as we did. We heard that you and your force were on the move towards Egardia, so we were coming to join up with you.

Val: And now you’ve come so far, only to be attacked again… Will you still be able to help us out?

Laraya: Of course. My soldiers will need some time to recover, though. If you hadn’t come to help us, I don’t think we would have been able to fight them off.

Val: I’m glad we made it on time, then.

Josie: So, Red, what are you up to, exactly?

Val: We’re heading back to Olva. I know that we were supposed to wait for Uncle Rayden to contact us, but we need to get some answers for Ash.

Josie: It’s… complicated.

Andrei: It’s… complicated. Ash could probably explain it a lot better, but he thinks he might be able to learn something about his magic if we find Legato.

Laraya: Yes… I could see that much within them. A truly sad fate. Anyway, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to go and check on my people’s condition.

Val: Sure.

[Exit Laraya]

Val: …That is aright, isn’t it, Aunt Josie?

Josie: Hm? Yeah, I guess so. I don’t really know what to make of the whole situation during the past few weeks, anyways. To be honest, I had expected Rayden to have at least made contact by now or something.

Val: I hope he’s alright.

Josie: Yeah… …So, it’s Legato you’re after, you said?

Andrei: That’s right.

Josie: Hmph… Should’ve known he was involved, as usual. Hey, where is Ash anyway?

Ash: … This feeling… I understand it now. “Before I have no choice.” I’m hollowing, aren’t I? That’s what’s been happening to me, ever so slowly. I’ll be just like one of them… again. …I wonder how much time I have left.

[Voice offscreen]

V: La la la…

Ash: Alicia?

Alicia is standing on the beach, apparently singing to herself.

Text

[Enter Alicia]

Alicia: Sigh

[Enter Ash]

Ash: You’ve got quite a voice there.

Alicia: Oh, Ash… I didn’t think anyone was watching me. How is everything?

Ash: Everything looks alright. Val should be able to sort things out with Lady Laraya. …What are you doing here?

Alicia: I just needed to calm myself. I’ve been feeling a little bit off since we set off from Egardia. I think it’s just because I don’t really know the people around here just yet.

Ash: …Is that really the problem?

Alicia: … … No, it isn’t. I have no idea why I’m trying to lie to you.

Ash: Are you worried about facing Bran once again?

Alicia: …When we come face to face with him, I’m sure he’ll fight us until his last breaths. It’s likely that I won’t even get a chance say anything to him. I’ll just be a traitor in his eyes.

Ash: Mm…

Alicia: Even despite that, I don’t know if I’m ready to see him die before me.

Ash: You don’t have to do that to yourself, Alicia.

Alicia: Hm?

Ash: You don’t have to come with us to Olva if you don’t want to.

Alicia: No, Ash, I do. I need to see and hear the truth from him. If Legato and Matthias have been using him, and he knew about what happened in Egardia, then that’s not the man I swore an oath to serve. And if that’s the man that we come across, I’ll get rid of him, myself.

Ash: …I see.

Alicia: …Thanks for letting me get this all out of my system, Ash. But I’d like to be alone for a little bit longer.

Ash: Alright. But just one last thing.

Alicia: Yeah?

Ash: Have you felt anything… different, recently… in your mind?

Alicia: …Hmm. Well, ever since we encountered that guy, it’s been a little bit more difficult to concentrate on my magic. But that’s about it. I guess I’m just a little shaken.

Ash: Right…

After this, Josie shows up:

Text

[Enter Josie]

Josie: There you are, Ash! Goodness… I haven’t seen you for months now and you don’t even think to come and say a word to me?

[Enter Alicia]

[Enter Ash]

Ash: Oh, I’m sorry… I was busy with some things.

Josie: Well… I’m glad you’re alright either way. I underestimated your capabilities, it would seem. More to the point, Laraya and I would like to hear from you.

Ash: Alright.

[Exit Ash]

Josie: Alicia, is it?

Alicia: Yes, Lady Josephine?

Josie: I originally thought you to be cut from the same cloth as Legato and Bran’s other subordinates. I guess I was wrong. So I’m sorry for the way I’ve spoken to you in the past.

Alicia: It’s alright, I understand. And if you ever deem your original judgement to be correct, then you may cut me down, if you wish.

Josie: Well, maybe I’ll keep that in mind, then.

[Exit Josie]

Alicia: … …

Aaaand that’s it. Tune in next time for whatever this is.

Final thoughts: Fog, ballistae, reinforcements (especially ones that spawn at out previous spawn point), and solo, hard-to-defend units makes this chapter unnecessarily reset-heavy. Once you learn what’s hiding in the fog and how to push past the initial enemies, the chapter becomes very boring. Also, the forests in the beginning of the chapter make it incredibly annoying to start, especially with the goal of the chapter being that you need to get to Laraya quickly.

Chapter 17: Well, what

Apparently, a message was sent to the Egardian militia, and apparently, Bran is keeping the citizens safe and spare, but we’re afraid of the worst.

Oh.

Crap.

Better get going, I guess!

A Renais dog? I doubt so. Batta? Strike two. Egardian Ephraim? Maybe.

Oh no.

Dante from the Devil May Cry series is here, by the way.

Well, time to pre-

Oh. Zim, did you do this or…

Wait, no… Val has that issue in a bigger scale… Actually…

Basically, when you get them back in Ash's mode, you may find that some - or maybe all of them have some broken stats, the most common seemingly being their resistance, although others can as well. It will in no way break the game, (except for perhaps making it a little bit too easy) so you don't even have to fix it if you don't want to.
The simple fix for this, is to (if you know how) use Nightmare to lower their stats. These characters use the non-tutorial versions of Lyn, Wil, Sain and Kent respectively.
One problem with this as a fix though is that if you apply this on a chapter and then have to restart that chapter, their stats will be reset and it will need to done again.
Also, this may cause issues in further playthroughs if the bug does not occur again, and these characters will probably end up having negative stats.
The more complicated, yet consistent fix is to use codebreaker codes to change the characters stats. After that, before restarting or quitting the game, you need to get the unit to get that stat up through levelling or by giving them a stat booster. After that has happened the code can be removed and you can continue on as usual.

Isaac is probably benched because I have a weird fetish with axe knights, but Val is mandatory, no matter which direction we take, so, got help from Leonarth to fix this, and used RAM hacking instead, to fix her Res back to the value I know it was (because I didn’t want to ask Zim or Wan for the save or if they have ever gotten Res on Val).

Anyway, back to the game.

Oh boy is this hell?

Pretty sure didn’t want to screen the position of the archer, because he’s a few tiles directly to the north of Dante. By the way, he has the same stats as when we saw him first, which means only a few people will negate his doubling, said people being Val, Edward, Clare and Katarina.

These guys all have droppable killers, which is nice, I guess.

Emilia and the boys stationed here.

Oh yes, our boye Skye is coming.

Kane kills a Myrm for a loopy level. Give me speed, damn it!

Val kills a guy for some good ol’-

Right, I forgot she had that bug :sharena:

One RAM Hack later…

Better.

Gemma gets a ok level.
Her last level. I hope we can get another Guiding Ring soon…

I never showed them, but here are her stats. They are between decent and eh at best, but she looks ready to promote right away.

Plenty of clearance had to be done. Ash gets speed.

The greenies show a formidable fight. And by formidable, I mean usual greenie suicide.

Hand axes.

Apparently Kendrick was supposedly in his way, but Dante loves playing dirty.

Skye gets a nice level. No str though…

Kane died to an archer, so I loaded an state to fix that.

As Katarina tries, thieves plunder through like a bull in a china shop.
Impulse is a renamed Bolting, I think.
I wish we had Andrei at a higher level, though.

Chapter 18: Zim destroys our turnout again edition

How bad could it be?

Turns out, pretty bad.

So I’ll get the writeup out of the way first because it’s short and sweet. This map sucks. Once you manage to survive the initial enemies near your starting points it’s a game of move your units until something else is in range to fight. It’s… boring. Really boring.

Also arena abuse. So much fucking arena abuse. Let this be a lesson to all you hackers who don’t think to put turn limits on maps with arenas on them.

I don’t wanna
Me, getting ready to play this map.
Our bad guys are doing their bad guy things.
As you can see here, more bad guy things.
The whatnow
Hello obviously evil
Spoiler alert: he is
They started killing all the rebels, this does not sit well with our party.
Something something make it my duty to kill Zane something something.
Time to promote you
Is that an arena?
This is a big map.
Bet
There’s no turn limit? Rip our turnout again then.
That’s our boss, he moves by the way.
Fuck
Shit
Dancer/Healer
She’ll be important later, for totally not arena abuse related reasons.
Sibling power go!
Fucking siege magic
We’re going to have to do something about you
I got tired of the restarts so I just made it the Josie power hour
Reinforcements spawn and run at you for like 3 turns.
Why are you so expensive?
Oh yeah there’s a secret shop too.
Vengeance can be fun
To quote @MageKnight404, “so I did some grinding off screen…”
Also, the convoy is suuuuuuuuuuper full. Not sorry about that.

Sweet freedom. Until next time, when it’ll be way easier because I arena abused the shit out of this chapter.